And $, you're right: every country in the world still considers us with trepidation and -- on some level -- contempt. Our country has allowed despots to exist and has failed to cesnsure past despots. This certainly engenders cynicism on a global level, I agree. All that said, people are less convinced the USA is becoming a bona-fide fascist country.

It may be a small Page Ranking victory, but at least in Latin America -- where I work -- it is something better than we had under Bush, under whose administration people didn't know what they could expect.

People here are no less afraid of what the US can become, but they aren't afraid of something the US actually IS.